Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #HarmReduction
Most recents (24)
I used to lament that it was often the case that I didn't get to know more of someone's story until their funerals, when friends & family would share stories of days gone by. As organizers, I remember we'd say, "We need a parent to speak out on this."
#Overdose #HarmReduction
#Overdose #HarmReduction
Then the next terrible avalanche of deaths started. I remember being in awe of the formation of @momsstoptheharm - powerhouses of grieving parents who had the unimaginable strength & courage to stand up to judgment & stigma, to honour the dead & fight like hell for the living.
Some of the most powerful, brave and complicated conversations about drug use are with parents in pain. This early episode of @crackdownpod is absolutely gut-wrenching. The pain and the anger and the love and the grief knocked me sideways.
crackdownpod.com/episodes/i7yat…
crackdownpod.com/episodes/i7yat…
1-Objective: SAVE LIVES.
Recently I said a #SafeSupply is the pinnacle of saving lives but I realized it's not; it's the FOUNDATION, upon which we build policies to actually save lives.
I'm going to refer to this moving forward as the GOLD STANDARD in reducing #DeathsOfDespair.
Recently I said a #SafeSupply is the pinnacle of saving lives but I realized it's not; it's the FOUNDATION, upon which we build policies to actually save lives.
I'm going to refer to this moving forward as the GOLD STANDARD in reducing #DeathsOfDespair.
2-Drugs would be legalized. A safe, known potency supply of substances created by existing drug manufacturers. It would include supply for RX'd medicines as well as for OTC public, adult, sales and consumption. Similar to how alcohol is sold & consumed now.
#SafeSupply
#SafeSupply
3-The BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS being funneled into the #DrugWar and the 'opioid crisis' would be put into improving efficacy and access to AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE, including mental and dental health, while bridging gaps in regard to other #socialdeterminants of health.
First, last night’s opening ceremonies was fantastic. In particular the opening land acknowledgement was a perfect way to get us started.
Watch this video from @Talkingdrugs to see for yourself (my phone was dead at the time 😩)
Watch this video from @Talkingdrugs to see for yourself (my phone was dead at the time 😩)
The opening ceremonies was very inspirational, especially the awards ceremonies.
People like Gabby Bruning, Diane Lloyd, and Andriy Yarovoi are beacons of hope.
People like Gabby Bruning, Diane Lloyd, and Andriy Yarovoi are beacons of hope.
As promised, here’s a dive into one state which has few requirements to publicly report how #opioid settlement funds are spent—and issues are already arising: Michigan. #THREAD
2/ Last summer, the Michigan legislature allotted $39M of settlement cash to the state health dept. For the next six months, there was almost no public info on how it would be used. No news releases. No invitation to apply for grants. "It was a black hole," said @opioidpolicy.
3/ Even the state’s Opioid Advisory Commission—created to evaluate the use of settlement💵—couldn’t get details. “It makes it difficult for us to do our job,” said chair @cara_poland. “We can’t really identify the impact of those dollars if we don’t know how they’re being used.”
VACCINE DISCRIMINATION: We need to stop vaccine requirements for US entry like almost every other country. Am finishing COVID chapter for our ID "bible" & vaccines prevented transmission early on with alpha, but not enough now with current variants to justify such discrimination
Moreover, shame, stigma, blame (remember COVIDiots?), coercion, discrimination not good public health tools. When used for HIV, public health & ID physicians decried them but tactics used a lot in COVID. This book tries to explore & correct that for future
barnesandnoble.com/w/endemic-moni…
barnesandnoble.com/w/endemic-moni…
Concept of #harmreduction in pandemic responses means watching carefully if vulnerable people (like students, older people, low-income populations, migrants, sex workers, prisoners, those with disabilities, refugees, minorities) harmed more by response
nature.com/articles/s4146…
nature.com/articles/s4146…
1/
Makes me sad-
The same arguments/facts we were making back in 2014 when Share Our Pain was one of the few E-advocacy groups here are the same things new people are just realizing.
Siobhan Reynolds-way before that.
GOV KNOWS the HARMS.
All the anti-opioid PROPagandists know.
Makes me sad-
The same arguments/facts we were making back in 2014 when Share Our Pain was one of the few E-advocacy groups here are the same things new people are just realizing.
Siobhan Reynolds-way before that.
GOV KNOWS the HARMS.
All the anti-opioid PROPagandists know.
2/EVERY #chronicpain pt needs to know our history re: our advocacy. Siobhan Reynolds was a lion, hunted down by GOV, cut down in the prime of her life.
Her voice will echo through time, forewarning the atrocities we see rapidly increasing in real time now. doctorsofcourage.org/siohban-reynol…
Her voice will echo through time, forewarning the atrocities we see rapidly increasing in real time now. doctorsofcourage.org/siohban-reynol…
We need inclusive spaces for organizing & gathering in the time of #COVID and #LongCOVID. Check out this brief guide for gatherings and call for disability solidarity, created with the What Would an HIV Doula Do? collective. 1/🧵
#DisabilityTwitter #PandemicsAreChronic
#DisabilityTwitter #PandemicsAreChronic
Practicing inclusion during COVID-19 means acknowledging the health and safety needs of all people, then taking steps to communicate and provide safe(r) and more accessible options for gathering.
#HarmReduction
#HarmReduction
This includes not only working to understand the reasons spaces may be inaccessible to individuals with varying needs, but also committing to following community-centered practices to improve safety for all. #AccessIsLove
All #fentanyl analogs in the black market are a product of drug regulation/prohibition.
Imagine making choc chip pancakes and finding that your spouse refused to buy choc chips so you find something that looks like choc chips and use those instead. Well, those were laxatives 🧵
Imagine making choc chip pancakes and finding that your spouse refused to buy choc chips so you find something that looks like choc chips and use those instead. Well, those were laxatives 🧵
2. I’m sure that analogy isn’t the greatest, but let’s talk about “true” fentanyl. The ingredients to make true fentanyl are no longer easy to access or buy because govt regulation restricted who can purchase those ingredients… and now cartel labs can’t find those ingredients.
3. The solution to this problem for cartel labs is to use alternative ingredients that LOOK like the normal ingredients for making true fentanyl. So like the pancakes made with chocolate laxative, fentanyl made with alternative ingredients are no longer the “true” product.
1/ Though my work is on speech issues, those who know me well know that #HarmReduction is an issue I care deeply about. Both because keeping people healthier & alive is good, and because it highlights the danger of overly intrusive govt.
So I want to talk about #vaping & #ecigs.
So I want to talk about #vaping & #ecigs.
2/ A section of @POTUS' State of the Union Fact Sheet that didn't make it into the speech addressed the harms of smoking, and the importance of cessation and prevention.
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
3/ Prohibition has never worked. Instead of failing repeatedly to regulate vice out of existence (which will never happen, and shouldn't be the purview of govt anyway), we should be enabling ways to keep people safer when they do partake in less-healthy activities.
Attitudes toward #harmreduction and low-threshold healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic: qualitative interviews with people who use drugs in rural southern Illinois 1/5 doi.org/10.1186/s12954…
BACKGROUND: Chronic health conditions associated with long-term drug use may pose additional risks to people who use drugs (PWUD) when coupled with COVID-19 infection. Despite this, PWUD, especially those living in rural areas, may be less ... 2/5
likely to seek out health services. Previous research has highlighted the increased disease burden of COVID-19 among PWUD. Our manuscript supplements this literature by exploring unique attitudes of PWUD living in rural areas toward the pan... 3/5
Evaluating new simplified assays for #harmreduction from methanol poisoning using chromotropic acid kits: An analytical study on Indian and Iranian alcoholic beverages 1/5 doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.…
BACKGROUND: Ingestion of methanol can result in severe irreversible morbidity, and death. Simple and easy methods to detect methanol and other hazardous additives prior to consumption can prevent fatalities. This form of #harmreduction is a... 2/5
nalogous to the widely practiced "pill testing" of recreational drugs in various countries. We aimed to evaluate the performance of two qualitative and quantitative kits to simultaneously identify the presence of methanol and formaldehyde i... 3/5
Implementation of a Leave-behind Naloxone Program in San Francisco: A One-year Experience 1/5 doi.org/10.5811/westje…
INTRODUCTION: In response to the ongoing opioid #overdose crisis, US officials urged the expansion of access to naloxone for opioid overdose reversal. Since then, emergency medical services' (EMS) dispensing of naloxone kits has become an em... 2/5
erging #harmreduction strategy.METHODS: We created a naloxone training and low-barrier distribution program in San Francisco: Project FRIEND (First Responder Increased Education and Naloxone Distribution). The team assembled an advisory com... 3/5
Confidence in nicotine for tobacco #harmreduction-Bridging the policy-practice gap 1/5 doi.org/10.1002/dta.34…
Decades of research show that constituents other than nicotine are the harmful agents in tobacco products. This knowledge is incorporated into the nicotine regulatory policies of countries leading in tobacco control, such as the UK and New ... 2/5
Zealand. Alternative nicotine products, such as nicotine replacement therapy and e-cigarettes, are now endorsed in the UK by a number of healthcare bodies in a tobacco #harmreduction approach that encourages tobacco users to completely swit... 3/5
Ethical Care for Patients with Self-Managed Abortion After Roe 1/5 doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ…
The 2022 Supreme Court decision leaving the regulation of abortion to the states is sure to result in a complex regulatory environment for patients and nurses. In states where abortion is illegal, patients may self-manage abortions using me... 2/5
dications they obtain through the mail or by other means. Nurses may care for these patients in multiple settings and may wonder about their own legal and ethical obligations. This article reviews patient privacy as it relates to self-manag... 3/5
Podcasts as a Method to Deliver Education on Stigma Surrounding Opioid Use Disorder 1/5 doi.org/10.3390/pharma…
The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a podcast miniseries to reduce stigma surrounding opioid use disorder (OUD) among student pharmacists. Students in their second and third professional years from two school... 2/5
s of pharmacy listened to five, 10-23 min podcasts incorporated into their coursework. The podcasts highlighted: (1) interviews with OUD professionals and those with lived experiences; (2) types of stigma and how it affects health outcomes;... 3/5
Advancing New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for Tobacco #HarmReduction: Synopsis from the 2021 CORESTA SSPT-NAMs Symposium 1/5 doi.org/10.3390/toxics…
New approach methodologies (NAMs) are emerging chemical safety assessment tools consisting of in vitro and in silico (computational) methodologies intended to reduce, refine, or replace (3R) various in vivo animal testing methods traditiona... 2/5
lly used for risk assessment. Significant progress has been made toward the adoption of NAMs for human health and environmental toxicity assessment. However, additional efforts are needed to expand their development and their use in regulat... 3/5
"It's Also Pushed People to a New Level of Desperation:" COVID-19 Impacts on Experiences of Persons Who Use Illicit Opioids 1/5 doi.org/10.1080/027910…
The purpose of this qualitative study is to characterize the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug use experiences among persons who use illicit opioids (PWUO) in Arizona. Between 12/2020 and 05/2021, interviews were conducted via Zoom w... 2/5
ith 22 PWUO from across Arizona. Participants were recruited through Craigslist and social media ads, referrals by a local #harmreduction organization, and other participants. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo. Partic... 3/5
ADOLESENTS: NIH Study (Stanford study, SF). "School shutdowns, severed social channels, and amplified stress at home and in their communities" during COVID amplified anxiety, depression, and brain aging "reflecting more lasting effects of adversity"
nimh.nih.gov/news/research-…
nimh.nih.gov/news/research-…
Important piece from @NEJM this week on #harmreduction in pandemic management. Do everything in your power to minimize severe disease but stop interventions which cause harm without decreasing pathogen impact; new era in COVID 2023 w/ immunity/vaccines
A holistic view of public health during a pandemic (consider societal effects of interventions; are they really helping?), can increase trust in public health. I - like most ID MDs on this platform- am concerned about trust & less uptake of other vaccines
I've recently finished my internship with Care International in Thailand! The aim of the project was to understand the specific needs of women who inject drugs, and how to improve drug harm reduction services for them. A 🧵
#harmreduction
#harmreduction
My research was based on literature reviews and semi-structured interviews. I travelled to the northern border of Thailand with Myanmar, to speak to women in Lahu hill tribes, the central Bangkok region, and the border with Malaysia to interview Southern Thai muslim women
The program of drug harm reduction wasn't attracting women, and we wanted to understand what needed to change. The first step: Asking women what they want. The women we interviewed were very vocal, and had plenty of suggestions. They simply had never been consulted.
Let's uncover something with #SubstanceSaturdays
1/ #Xylazine is a sedative and analgesic drug that is commonly used in veterinary medicine to sedate and immobilize animals. It is also used as an anesthetic in laboratory animals and as a tranquilizer in horse racing.
1/ #Xylazine is a sedative and analgesic drug that is commonly used in veterinary medicine to sedate and immobilize animals. It is also used as an anesthetic in laboratory animals and as a tranquilizer in horse racing.
2/ Xylazine is a Schedule III controlled substance under the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, meaning that it has a potential for abuse and dependence, and it should be used under strict medical supervision. One of its nicknames is "#tranq".
3/ Unfortunately, Xylazine is being used to contaminate the drug supply, and it is being sold as a street drug. This is a dangerous practice as Xylazine can cause serious side effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular depression, and even death in high doses.
The #AlbertaModel at work. 🧵
“A Medicine Hat-based recovery organization, which has to date received six-figures in government funding, has endorsed an anti-supervised consumption site ad campaign in the U.S.”
First, a must read from @JeremyAppel1025
open.substack.com/pub/theorchard…
“A Medicine Hat-based recovery organization, which has to date received six-figures in government funding, has endorsed an anti-supervised consumption site ad campaign in the U.S.”
First, a must read from @JeremyAppel1025
open.substack.com/pub/theorchard…
This attack on supervised consumption services is not a one-off. It’s a pattern of misinformation.
From @ehyshka:
“It is unfortunate to see an Alberta-based organization lobbying the United States government against supporting this intervention,”
#ableg
From @ehyshka:
“It is unfortunate to see an Alberta-based organization lobbying the United States government against supporting this intervention,”
#ableg
Unfortunate, but not surprising. There is a coordinated movement underway to shift public opinion away from #HarmReduction. A movement heavily influenced by the misinformation machine in #Alberta.
Tomorrow is NYE, there will be partying, pills, and powders. Some leading to overdose.
I work in the ER NYE/NYD & expect a few "OD's" from said pills n powders. What exactly is in them?
A 🧵from Camden, a VERY human 28 y.o male, on the illicit drug supply
#MedED #FOAMed
I work in the ER NYE/NYD & expect a few "OD's" from said pills n powders. What exactly is in them?
A 🧵from Camden, a VERY human 28 y.o male, on the illicit drug supply
#MedED #FOAMed
Cam was out with his friends celebrating NYE with some beverages when one of his friends offered him a tan powder. Cam was pretty hesitant at first but..
Eventually peer pressure won. Cam gave it a try.
A few minutes after trying the substance...
A few minutes after trying the substance...
Und wieder einmal Desinformation zur #Ezigarette in Reinkultur! .@hessenschau
hessenschau.de/tv-sendung/lun…
Inhaltsstoffe in Liquids sind in erster Linie PG, VG, Aroma, ggf. Nikotin.
#ezigarette #edampfe #dampfen #rauchfrei #THRworks #ecigs #vaping
hessenschau.de/tv-sendung/lun…
Inhaltsstoffe in Liquids sind in erster Linie PG, VG, Aroma, ggf. Nikotin.
#ezigarette #edampfe #dampfen #rauchfrei #THRworks #ecigs #vaping
Bisherige Studien haben gezeigt, dass im Dampf der Anteil von Formaldehyd etc. im Vergleich zum Tabakrauch minimalst ist! Die meisten gefundenen Stoffe sind gerade so an der Nachweisgrenze. Daher ganz klar, der Zuschauer wird im Dunkeln gelassen.
ch-lippmann.de/blog/dampffrei…
ch-lippmann.de/blog/dampffrei…
Weiterer Fakt: Raucher, welche auf das Dampfen umsteigen sind faktisch Nichtraucher!
Die E-Zigarette ist ein Produkt zur Tabakschadensminimierung und effektiver zur Erreichung des Rauchstopps als herkömmliche NET.
Das zeigt auch @CochraneTAG
ch-lippmann.de/blog/dampffrei…
Die E-Zigarette ist ein Produkt zur Tabakschadensminimierung und effektiver zur Erreichung des Rauchstopps als herkömmliche NET.
Das zeigt auch @CochraneTAG
ch-lippmann.de/blog/dampffrei…
We get told many ignorant, cruel stories about #SelfInjury & why we do it.
I feel like doing a myth-busting thread, with some of the real reasons from my own life.
Understanding *why* is important.
It can give us power to make the choices that are right for us.
1/
#selfharm
I feel like doing a myth-busting thread, with some of the real reasons from my own life.
Understanding *why* is important.
It can give us power to make the choices that are right for us.
1/
#selfharm
Transforming pain
It’s hard to feel two kinds of different pain at once.
So sometimes, if my emotional pain feels unbearable, I create physical pain—like a kind of alchemy. It still hurts but it’s often more bearable.
This kind of SI can help keep me alive.
2/
It’s hard to feel two kinds of different pain at once.
So sometimes, if my emotional pain feels unbearable, I create physical pain—like a kind of alchemy. It still hurts but it’s often more bearable.
This kind of SI can help keep me alive.
2/
Shame & punishment
The worst ongoing impact of child abuse for me is shame. It’s insidious. Sometimes my SI is a response to that, a way of trying to feel like a good person.
This is often hidden, very private SI. Sometimes it makes shame worse, sometimes it helps.
3/
The worst ongoing impact of child abuse for me is shame. It’s insidious. Sometimes my SI is a response to that, a way of trying to feel like a good person.
This is often hidden, very private SI. Sometimes it makes shame worse, sometimes it helps.
3/
